Serviceable Bitterness

Put Your Anger To Good Use

Despite the criticisms of doomsday rhetoric, despite how poorly such words are taken by the political elite, by technologists, and by the academic establishment, our global situation demands that we recognize the scope of our problem and no longer turn solely to technology alone, or science alone, or religion alone, for the fix. We need to develop the people who can give us the best sort of ethos to guide us, even if we use technology, science, and religion as part of the solution. Unless “we better understand our own behavior and how to change it, we will not use sophisticated technological solutions when and if they become available” (Winter and Koger, 2004, p. 21).

A recognition of this need leads naturally to three questions: What sort of eco-centric elders do we need? How do we produce more of them? What is the sort of ethos that is required for human happiness and ecological sustainability? By the end of the Heartwood Path you will be able to answer each of these questions.

For now, learn what it takes to make a major step towards being a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem. This step has to do with finding the light side rather than just the dark side of anger.

Looking back at the successes I contributed to in my conservation career, it was the love of certain natural places plus the proper channeling of anger over their potential devastation that, over and over, propelled us through difficult times to eventual positive end results. The thought of the long-operating Mullen Farm going under water as a result of the proposed Meramec Dam on one of my favorite canoeing streams, for example, made me livid. And it was the bitterness I felt about the audacity of planning the desecration the finest forest cathedral in Missouri—the Irish Wilderness—that provided the impetus I needed to sustain me over the years of effort that largely ended when that wild place—so precious to me—was added to the National Wilderness Preservation System.

Hindsight reveals that when I was angry over the thought of some impending destruction of a beloved natural place I worked on the issue; and when I wasn’t, I work less or not at all. At the time, I didn’t know that I, along with the other leaders, were appropriately channeling our anger in ways that ended in conservation successes. We were just muddling through. We focused almost solely on the outer world resources. We essentially never focused on our own inner world motivations, resilience, or clarity. Thanks to what is presented next, you do not have to repeat this more difficult and unimaginative approach.

​Given what I now know, I cannot imagine ever justifying the diminishment of anger. Temper your anger. Don’t extinguish it.

Five Steps Toward Making Your Anger Useful​

The importance of the next five steps you take down the Heartwood Path cannot be overstated: Step One. Decide if your anger is worth expressing. Rather than fuming out loud to others about grievances that have no solutions, save your outbursts for issues that can be corrected. Any imagined solution, regardless of its difficulty to achieve, will do for this step. Imagine it is solved and it will be solved, especially if you do not listen to experienced predecessors who may claim that the work will be too difficult or that the desired outcome is unlikely. Get mad at anyone who demoralizes the key players in the environmental movement—the naive amateurs—who, while often not knowing it, have within themselves the ability to do the impossible.Step Two. Apologize for your imperfect expressions of your anger in advance. Do not apologize for your anger, for it gives you energy and conveys importance. Just tell others that your expressions may be less than ideal because your anger keeps you from always communicating clearly. Admitting your anger-driven discomfort will make your audience more empathetic. Step Three. Slow down. Rather than engaging in a rapid-fire monologue, take a break, and be silent for however long it takes for you to regain your composure. These breaks will likely add to the impact of your presentation. Step Four. Monitor your anger as you proceed. Make sure your anger continues to give you energy and is helping you to convey your message. The goal of this monitoring is to make sure that you are using your anger in ways they convey urgency—the need for rapid participation, the need for greater involvement now, the grave need to protect some being, or the need to act earnestly to do something that adds to someone’s happiness. Also, check on the impacts of your anger on others.​Step Five. Set limits on the severity of your expressed anger. If your anger is too much for you or your audience, or if your anger is a distraction, cool it down. A walk through a natural setting is one of the best ways to bring your anger down to an acceptable level. If your anger is not sufficient to give you the energy you require, or if your expressed anger is not imparting enough urgency, heat up the expression of your anger. To do so, imagine the negative impact of a proposal on a loved one and express with greater vehemence (perhaps with pounding fists, fire in the eyes, or stronger language) your displeasure about the prospect and your determination to do something significant to right the wrong.

To Practice Putting Anger To Good Use...​

​HumaNatureConnect Activity​

If this is not a day when you prefer to spend time in nature without an agenda, do the following activity:​​​

Start-up Protocol

Read The Text— Use your literary sense, your mind sense, and your reason sense to read your way towards happiness and sustainability but do not just be an arm-chair traveler. Use your other natural senses as you also spend healthful, fun, and productive time in nature on your way to Gladandgreen Junction.

Attractive Natural Being— With pen and journal in hand, go to a natural area and look around to find a natural being that is attractive to you.

Appreciation and Gratefulness— While admiring your chosen being, appreciate it with your inhalations and give it gratitude with your exhalations.

Consent— Once you find an aspect of nature that is attractive to you continuously for at least ten seconds, think of your continued attraction as your consent to have a connection experience that will lead to your optimal functioning.

The Natural Senses— After gaining consent to enter into a connection experience with the natural being, have available the list of Natural Senses. Mix it up by using at least one radiation sense, one feeling sense, one chemical sense, and one mental sense, to widen your perception, and add variety to your experience.

HumaNatureConnect Activity — After reading the text, finding a natural being, appreciating it, gaining its consent, and scanning the list of natural senses, use your heightened awareness and nature-induced optimal functioning to do the following activity and engage in as many follow-up components as you see fit.

Noting What Angers You And How That Makes You Feel​

For this activity, be thankful for the way anger provides you with energy and conveys urgency about some public issue, imagine yourself apologizing in advance for your less-than-perfect expressions of anger, imagine monitoring your anger as you proceed with your efforts on a social or environmental cause, and imagine putting upper and lower limits on your anger, noting how too little robs you of energy, and how too much is a distraction.

​​​​Follow-up ProtocolNatural Systems Reflection Process​​

For best results, write down your impressions of this activity in your journal using as many of the following components as you see fit, afterwards, share your interpretations with others.​

Journal Components​

General Description — writing a general description of how you did the activity and what happened.

Freeform — writing, in freeform, what you found attractive about your natural being.

Three Qualities — writing down three qualities you found most attractive about your natural being.

Three Learnings — writing down three things you learned from this activity.

Self-esteem & Trust — writing down how, if at all, this activity changed your self-esteem or trustfulness of Nature.

Changes To Self — writing down what aspects of your self, if any, were changed by this activity.

Honor Yourself — praising yourself and your commitment to making another stop along the Heartwood Path good for yourself and the world.

I’m A Person Who . . . — writing down three different so-called “G/G Statements” using the following format: “This connection experience tells me that I am a person who__________.”

Feelings If Activity Taken — writing down a sentence about how you would feel if you lost your ability to experience this connection.

Two-Word Summary — writing down two words that summarize your response to this activity.​

To see what conversations you can inspire, share your photos and impressions about anything pertaining to your journey down the Heartwood Path on your Facebook page, on Instagram, and on other social media accounts. If you like, include “#heartwoodpath” and “#waypoint(insert waypoint number here)” wherever pertinent

​​​

Your input is vital. Enjoy sharing!

Heartwood Path Axioms:Key Points From Waypoint 1.10

1.10.1.Determine what makes you angry, how that feels, and how to put your anger to good use.

1.10.2.We need to develop the people who can give us the best sort of ethos to guide us, even if we use technology, science, and religion as part of the solution.

1.10.3.The five ways to put anger—which has the positive effect of providing energy and conveying urgency—to good use are: 1) deciding if your anger is worth expressing, 2) apologizing for your imperfect expressions of your anger in advance, 3) slowing down through the effective use of emotion-resetting pauses, 4) monitoring the impact of anger on yourself and others, and 5) setting both upper and lower limits on the severity of your expressed anger.

1.10.4.Tuning into the meaning and significance of dreams in a way that offers guidance happens over time and in stages through the use of association, amplification, and animation (each explained in the following Nocturnal Pilgrimage section).

Consider the notion that “dream images not only live within us, but they exist all around us, in every animal, plant, and object of this world” (Aizenstat, 2009, p. 8). Tuning into the meaning and significance of dreams in a way that offers guidance happens over time and through various means. Aizenstat mentions three major approaches:​

From Sigmund Freud, there is association—wherein dreams help us with our infantile rage, latent wishes, and repressed aggressive sexual drives, which are often too upsetting for the conscious mind to process. (Aizenstat, 2009, p. 15).

From Carl Jung, there is amplification--wherein dreams originate in the collective human psyche and can represent universal archetypes, similar to themes and characters found in literature. Amplified dreams tell us something of the grand story in which we live. In Jung's technique, “we expand (amplify) the (dream) image to its full stature as an archetype and then see how that archetypal motif is currently active in our lives” (Aizenstat, 2009, p. 12-19)

From James Hillman, there is animation--wherein dreams are “more than signs pointing to some answer, as Freud said, or symbols representing a meaning, like Jung said. According to Hillman, dreams are also "phenomenal, like living animals, and have presence, place, and body” (Aizenstat, 2009, pp. 12-19).

Of these three approaches, we in this series of courses will be using animation the most, but not at first. You are encouraged to look at tonight’s dreams (and the next several night’s dreams as well) as signs of repressed drives. Look for how your dreams may be revealing yearnings, thoughts, memories, or feelings that you may be hiding from yourself by burying them in your subconscious mind. You may be driven to things, actions, relationships or thoughts that, if they were revealed, would be unsettled or embarrassing. Dreams bring such repressed drives into your awareness in ways that are psychologically manageable or, if necessary, jolting. Once revealed you can deal with your repressed baggage simply by bringing them to light; by mulling them over yourself; by discussing them with trusted friends or family; or by bringing them to the attention of a counselor, social worker, life coach, Heartwood Path guide, or psychologist. Any time you reveal a repressed drive you have the fortunate opportunity to reach important understandings, make appropriate changes, and, free yourself from a burden that was holding you back, even if it was operating beneath your awareness. After recording your impressions of your repressed drives in your dream journal (assuming you have revealed one or more) move to the next waypoint: “Life Coaches.”

EartHeart Tips:﻿Don't forget to bookmark your current location along the Heartwood Path for easy return.﻿